The English word "soul" carries Platonic freight the Hebrew nephesh does not.
Imported citation, not independently checked: O. Cullmann, Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? (1958)
religion · Shared topic · Revision 0
Is the immortal soul a Greek idea, not a biblical one?
Is the immortal soul a Greek idea, not a biblical one?
The current answer
Plato gave the West a soul that floats free of death. The Bible gave it a different hope.
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In Genesis 2:7 God forms the human from dust, breathes in breath of life, and "the man became a living being" (nephesh hayyah), the human does not have a nephesh, the human is one.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Genesis 2:7
The clearest Hebrew text is Daniel 12:2 ("many who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake") language of sleep and waking, a whole person restored, not a soul that never slept.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Daniel 12:2
Already the Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-4 (a Greek-language Jewish text) says "the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God," sliding toward an intermediate, surviving soul.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-4
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